[Mongoose]

I've finally given in and purchased this.  Jeb help me.

[Nuke]

I bnow own KSP. Yet another game to force my addiction to mods on... 

ksp steals another modder.
should do a freespace inspired parts pack.

[NGTM-1R]

I've finally given in and purchased this.  Jeb help me.

Believe in the Jeb and it will make you fly.

[Mongoose]

Actually my fun started out with the demo.  I was doing the Munar insertion training mission, and after entering the Mun's SOI, I wound up with a periapsis of 1500 meters, which is pretty damn close, but I figured what the hey.  So I'm all set to fire a retrograde burn and get myself into orbit, when...well, either there was a negative sign in front of the 1500 that I missed, or else I managed to find a mountain, because all of a sudden *SPLAT*.  Good times.

[Scourge of Ages]

Once again, I've landed on the Mun. Not just one Kerb, not two even, but three live Kerbals. On the Mun, at once, and I was able to return them with a bunch of science equipment.



All thanks in part to my revolutionary "jet lift system". Screenies when it's all worked out.

[Dragon]

Actually my fun started out with the demo.  I was doing the Munar insertion training mission, and after entering the Mun's SOI, I wound up with a periapsis of 1500 meters, which is pretty damn close, but I figured what the hey.  So I'm all set to fire a retrograde burn and get myself into orbit, when...well, either there was a negative sign in front of the 1500 that I missed, or else I managed to find a mountain, because all of a sudden *SPLAT*.  Good times.

Most of the Munar surface is way above what they consider "sea level". The highest peak is at 8k, you apparently can orbit on equatorial at 5k, though it's a harrowing experience. Below that, you're up for a meeting with the ground.

[Mongoose]

Heh, yeah, in the many hours I've sunk into the game since then.  I've had some fun times with Munar altitude.  One of my finest/worst moments was when I moved my Munar lander to a second biome when I really didn't have enough fuel to do so.  I ran out pretty quickly on my ascent, so I switched over to RCS, which had bailed me out on a previous landing...but that fell well short of orbit too.  I wound up having Bill bail out of the capsule and get into orbit with his own jetpack.  The cool part is that I did pretty well with my rendezvous maneuvers, and only needed to adjust things on the command module's end to make the last little approach.

Because I'm totally unoriginal, I'm doing various recreations of real-life missions.  I have a Kerbnik satellite up in orbit (amusingly well after I'd already landed on the Mun), and a four-stage Saturn V look-alike that's honestly something of a bear to get into orbit; without modded parts, I'd probably be better off going with a more realistic five-stack initial stage.  I also just managed to make what I think is a pretty decent representation of Skylab, which I'll have to grab a pic of.

[Nuke]

there has been an update.

i dont even notice the contract system, my rep is in the blue and i have more money than i can ever use. idk what is supposed to happen when i run out of money. i was up till 6am getting all the science i could out of duna/ike. i still got to go fetch some samples from the mother ship though.

also 64 bit on winders is nice. though the interface feels abit buggy.

[Colonol Dekker]

I'm glad I've played it since early days. There's just too much blarg now.

[Scourge of Ages]

I will now again attempt to build a surface-to-orbit spaceplane.

[Mongoose]

Gah, I still had a lot of stuff I wanted to do on my older career save.  Luckily the devs are cool and have the previous version listed as a "beta" on Steam, and apparently you can just copy the whole directory wherever you want and run it independently, so I can have two versions in-play at once.  I'm eager to see how these contracts play out when starting from scratch.

Edit: Wait, never mind...there's a new game mode called Science that's basically just the old Career mode, and you can convert your saves over to it with a quick config edit.  Handy!

[Scourge of Ages]

I think I got the space plane thing. My goal was to be able to 'reuse' the entire vehicle with only a refueling. The mission profile is to shuttle Kerbals to and from orbit safely and cheaply.

The trick to building one of these is to make it light enough so you can get good speed with the jets and orbit with only 2 rockets, and sticking enough wings on to get the lift you need to take the load off the jets. So here it is: The Space Planar 4!

Taking off at a 40 degree angle.


At around 15k meters, kick on the rockets. The extra speed should ram enough air into the jets to keep 'em running until about 22k or 24k meters, when you'll need to shut them off and hit orbit on the rockets alone.


And there she is, in a nice 75-80k orbit, with fuel to maneuver with yet.


And after a single orbit, inbound for a soft landing.


(Due to a nasty crash, I am unable to post an image of the Space Planar 4 safely on the ground (not a system crash (I messed up, stalled, and got stuck in a flat spin on approach)))

[Nuke]

i accidentally stranded a kerbal on laythe when i grossly underestimated the amount of delta v needed to take off again. but its ok, i got a sample/kerbal return rocket in laythe orbit loaded with surface samples from bop, pol, and vall, which should net enough science to unlock the remaining parts. pretty good for a fresh save. once the tech tree is decimated, i start shoveling mods.

my reputation is off the scale and i never ran out of funds. i think this game is too easy.

[Colonol Dekker]

Not for casual players.

[Dragon]

This kind of game isn't really for casual players, though. Once you get a hang of it, it's easy, but you have to spend some time to learn the ropes. I have a feeling that learning curve is somewhat like the old flight simulators, like the Novalogic ones with simplified switchology, but realistic flight model and weapons.

And of course, for real hardcore players, there's real solar system (once it's fixed, that is...). I hope it'll get further expanded with more realistic contracts, too.

[Colonol Dekker]

I've been casually playing this for two years I can get into orbit easily. And LAND on the moon. I don't bother with rendezvous' or the like but I would like to be able to target and land on other planets. Maybe return too.

[Nuke]

ive been using a lot of aerocapture and gravity assists. on leaving kerbin i always gravity assist at mun. i use it a lot to navigate the jool system. if im going to eve or duna, i will aerocapture to avoid doing a capture burn. if im going to jool i usually aerobreak at laythe. coming home i always aerocapture at kerbin.

[Fenrir]

I have a few more variables to worry about on account of having Deadly Reentry installed, but aerobreaking remains rather useful for transfers and things.

[NGTM-1R]

This kind of game isn't really for casual players, though.

Bull****. This game is all about the casual player building the most magnificent rocket ever and having it explode on the launch pad, and you know it.

[crizza]

This kind of game isn't really for casual players, though.

Bull****. This game is all about the casual player building the most magnificent rocket ever and having it explode on the launch pad, and you know it.

But it is not even half that hillarious when you look in this thread